TGO boating thread: join a sailing club like yesterday

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > The Great Outdoors > TGO boating thread: join a sailing club like yesterday

El Grillo: Jan 3, 2008; Fun Shoe

drat I miss boats. If more of you goons got boat pics and stuff keep posting them would you.

Pharnakes posted:

This is Twinklamee, an Orkney built larch on oak 24'6" gunter rig cabin cruiser that my father swapped for a rover sports car he won in a raffle nearly 20 years ago, and which took us 10 years or so of sporadic work to restore after she had been rotting in a marina park with no cover for nearly 15 years.

She still leaks like a sieve when we put her in for the season, which was extremely alarming the first time, but she takes up within a day and then she is remarkably dry.

My father insists on referring to her as Twink, and no one really has the heart to explain to him what most people must think when he tells them about his boat called Twink.

2 years ago we took her on our first real cruise to St Kilda (absolutely fascinating place, well worth the effort to get to if you ever have an opportunity).

It was the first time any of us had really been sailing, we went in late June just a few days after the solstice and sailing along in the middle of the "night" handling the boat by myself while my father and uncle slept was extremely awesome and, I don't know, solemn somehow? Of course there is no night really, I took this picture at about 3:30 am I think.

With the kind of hazy lighting, being by myself with no reference point but a compass and the dolphins alongside, with only the sail up I could hear their squeaking with the hull acting like an amplifier, and even the swishing of their tails in the water made for a sense of complete unreality. I will definitely remember those hours for the rest of my life

We saw a lot of dolphins on that trip, I only had a mobile but still got some pretty ok pictures I think.

Forgive the thumb, I was excited

We also saw this extremely gorgeous lady at Loch Boisdale, and felt very inferior.

Although I did notice she was starting to go around the gunnels, the amount of work and or money it takes to maintain wooden boats is insane even by boat standards.

This is bloody stunning

# ¿ Dec 8, 2020 19:54

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 20:26

El Grillo: Jan 3, 2008; Fun Shoe

Hallelujah, I've hit the jackpot; a dude who is willing to let a friend and I borrow his boat whenever we want.

She's a somewhat knackered, 40-year-old 38' yacht, of what make I do not know. Perfectly seaworthy though the fiberglass is starting to show real wear at the joints.

While we were scooting around between the Isle of White and the Hamble on Saturday, we came across this amazing old beauty on a post-lockdown shakedown cruise:

Largest in-service steamship in northern Europe, apparently.

# ¿ May 6, 2021 19:23

El Grillo: Jan 3, 2008; Fun Shoe

BadSamaritan posted:

I signed up for sailing lessons later this summer on a local lake and am pretty excited. I guess my question is how to take the next step from there towards larger boats/ocean water. Like… how do you learn the navigation/planning/maintenance aspect? I’m in the Boston area, so I’m sure there are resources, I just don’t know where to begin.

At least the lake/river rentals are pretty cheap so I can toodle away for a couple summers until the kids get bigger.

I dunno what qualifications are available in the US/elsewhere, but in the UK we have a standard set of courses & qualifications created by the RYA that are taught, well actually sail training companies teach them all over the world.
In the RYA progression you'd want to do the 'day skipper' qualification, which includes both a five day sea trial/course, and a land-based 'theory' course that includes navigation etc. and to complete you take an (easy) exam. Great way to learn the essential basics.

In fact I think you can take theory the course online from wherever you are, these days. Might be worth googling.

I imagine there are similar course structures made by other organisations in other countries. Albeit I'm sure there must be providers in the USA (if that's where your based) that do the RYA courses.

Obviously once you've done that course you actually have to go sail yourself, make lots of mistakes and that's the way you actually 'learn' all the stuff you're introduced to on the courses - same as anything really.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2021 09:54

El Grillo: Jan 3, 2008; Fun Shoe

BadSamaritan posted:

Thanks, these are helpful! I used to do a lot of river and coastal kayaking with my family but I get a bit nervous with bigger boats and being further from the shore. Boston Harbor and up by Salem/Gloucester are pretty busy and I really don’t want to be That Boat.

If I like the course I’m taking there are ASA courses of increasing difficulty nearby, as well as a number of casual racing groups/clubs to get larger boat experience on. It just feels like such a big jump from ‘lil boat in a pond’ to ‘busy ocean coastline or bay’.

Those charts are great. I’m also a planner, especially when it comes to any larger-scale outdoors activities.

Yeah to be honest I would never say to any new sailor that skippering a yacht in tidal waters is 'easy'. I'm sure there are places where it's easy due to lack of obstructions and hazards but certainly where I sail (southern and eastern coasts of England) you have to know how tides and their associated currents work and how to work out whether you're going to have enough water where you want to go at the time you're probably going go get there, how the shipping channels work, how to read the millions of marks there are for sandbanks and such hazards, and so on.
Then again I was brought up old school with the idea you should know how to do that stuff by hand with paper charts and analogue instruments in case your electrics get hosed; if you instead just rely on GPS and tide apps on your phone and such, lots of things become way way easier. For me I like to use both types of tools because I'm a huge anorak lol.

By contrast to the above example of tidal sailing, sailing around the Ionian or one of the other Mediterranean seas really is a piece of cake; no tides, no real currents, few hazards, basically point the boat at a pretty bit of island and go.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2021 18:06

El Grillo: Jan 3, 2008; Fun Shoe

That's awesome. Enjoy & report back!

# ¿ Jul 7, 2021 18:19

El Grillo: Jan 3, 2008; Fun Shoe

^^nice. Yep join the local club or just find a way to get to know the local boaters.
Nice change from London! I don't go Cornwall much, tend to head to north Devon for the surf but there's just endless great coast down there.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2021 10:22

El Grillo: Jan 3, 2008; Fun Shoe

^^awesome. I was out this past weekend in the Solent again, my mate brought a drone and it was great fun messing around with it taking photos. Anchored up at Newtown national nature reserve for lunch, it was so hot & sunny we actually swam off the back of the boat (not a common occurrence here - it was still very chilly lol). Beautiful spot (but no wind to speak of all day):

# ¿ Sep 14, 2021 19:46

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 20:26

El Grillo: Jan 3, 2008; Fun Shoe

yard salad posted:

I do not enjoy the outboard motor on my boat. The gas tank stinks and the line leaks. It’s pointless overkill for the lake I sail on, but I feel like I should have it “just in case”.

Should I sell it? Get a trolling motor? Throw the crew out and make them push?

Also, I tried to hook up the battery today and my incompetence cost me a melted terminal and probably a lot of new electrical work lmao whoops!

How big is the boat?

# ¿ Oct 5, 2021 16:24

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > The Great Outdoors > TGO boating thread: join a sailing club like yesterday